TCM Schedule for Saturday, December 2, 2017 -- The Essentials - Colin Clive

[Staph]

Tonight's Essentials feature a quartet of films featuring Colin Clive. He's best remembered these days as the original Doctor Victor Frankenstein from James Whale's Frankenstein (1931), but he was so much more than a horror picture star. Sadly, he died at age 37, from pneumonia, brought on by a long history of alcholism. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- A Night at the Opera (1935)
Three zanies turn an operatic performance into chaos in their efforts to promote their protege's romance with the leading lady.
Dir: Sam Wood
Cast: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx
BW-91 mins

This was The Marx Brothers' first film with MGM. In preparation MGM sent them on a nationwide tour, performing potential bits live before current MGM films were shown. This opportunity for advance audience feedback is one reason this film became known as one of their best.


7:45 AM -- The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954)
A writer recalls his turbulent marriage to an expatriate heiress.
Dir: Richard Brooks
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Van Johnson, Walter Pidgeon
C-116 mins, Letterbox Format, CC

The film is loosely based upon F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "Babylon Revisited". While the "mystery challenger" on What's My Line?: Episode dated 14 November 1954, Elizabeth Taylor was asked why this movie was renamed. She replied that the studio was afraid audiences would assume that a movie titled "Babylon Revisited" was about Biblical subject matters.


10:00 AM -- The Stratton Story (1949)
True story of Monty Stratton, the baseball star who fought to continue his career after losing a leg.
Dir: Sam Wood
Cast: James Stewart, June Allyson, Frank Morgan
BW-107 mins, CC

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Douglas Morrow

After the events of the movie, the real Monty Stratton went on to be a coach for the Chicago White Sox for a couple of years before going back to his home town of Greenville, TX to start his own farm team. In 1946 he shocked the world when he took the mound once again, this time in the minor leagues, and he posted an 18-8 record for that season.


12:00 PM -- Susan Slept Here (1954)
A Hollywood screenwriter takes in a runaway girl who's more woman than he can handle.
Dir: Frank Tashlin
Cast: Dick Powell, Debbie Reynolds, Anne Francis
C-98 mins, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- John Aalberg (RKO Radio), and Best Music, Original Song -- Jack Lawrence and Richard Myers for the song "Hold My Hand"

Susan Slept Here (1954) was condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency, primarily for its suggestive title. In a male-dominated society George Washington Slept Here (1942) sounded no similar moral alarms. The ban hurt the movie's receipts but did greater harm to the Legion who were taken less seriously after The Moon Is Blue (1953) ban a year earlier in shocked response to the word 'virgin' used outside the church.


2:00 PM -- Bell Book and Candle (1958)
A beautiful witch puts a love spell on an unknowing publisher.
Dir: Richard Quine
Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon
C-102 mins, Letterbox Format, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White or Color -- Cary Odell and Louis Diage, and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White or Color -- Jean Louis

This is the last movie James Stewart would play a romantic leading man to a younger actress. James Stewart was 49 and Kim Novak was 25. James Stewart was not uncomfortable with the age difference but Kim Novak did object and was uncomfortable with it. Stewart finally said; "Enough!". After this movie, Stewart only played movie roles where he was a married man or a loner.


4:00 PM -- Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
An ambitious young man sets out to kill everyone who stands between him and a fortune.
Dir: Robert Hamer
Cast: Alec Guinness, Dennis Price, Joan Greenwood
BW-106 mins, CC

The scene where six members of the D'Ascoynes family, all played by Alec Guinness, are seen together took two days to film. The camera was set on a specially built platform to minimize movement. In addition, the camera operator spent the night with the camera to ensure that nothing moved it by accident. A frame with six black matte painted optical flat glass windows was set in front of the camera and the windows opened one at a time so each of the characters could be filmed in turn. The film was then wound back for the next character. Most of the time was spent waiting for Guinness to be made up as the next character. Life is much easier in Hollywood with CGI!


6:00 PM -- The Children's Hour (1961)
A malicious student tries to destroy the teachers at a girls' school.
Dir: William Wyler
Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine, James Garner
BW-108 mins, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Fay Bainter, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Franz Planer, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Fernando Carrere and Edward G. Boyle, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Dorothy Jeakins, and Best Sound -- Gordon Sawyer (Samuel Goldwyn SSD)

Shirley MacLaine, in the documentary The Celluloid Closet (1995), said that nobody on the set of The Children's Hour (1961) discussed the ramifications of the issues regarding homosexuality that are implied, but never spoken about outright, in the film. She said, "none of us were really aware. We might have been forerunners, but we weren't really, because we didn't do the picture right. We were in the mindset of not understanding what we were basically doing. These days, there would be a tremendous outcry, as well there should be. Why would Martha break down and say, 'Oh my god, what's wrong with me, I'm so polluted, I've ruined you.' She would fight! She would fight for her budding preference. And when you look at it, to have Martha play that scene - and no one questioned it - what that meant, or what the alternatives could have been underneath the dialog, it's mind boggling. The profundity of this subject was not in the lexicon of our rehearsal period. Audrey and I never talked about this. Isn't that amazing. Truly amazing."



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: THE ESSENTIALS: COLIN CLIVE


8:00 PM -- Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
To save his wife, Baron Frankenstein must build a mate for his monster.
Dir: James Whale
Cast: Karloff, Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson
BW-75 mins, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Gilbert Kurland (sound director)

Not long before filming began, Colin Clive broke a leg in a horse riding accident. Consequently, most of Henry Frankenstein's scenes were shot with him sitting.


9:30 PM -- One More River (1934)
An abused wife flees her husband and finds love, but at a price.
Dir: James Whale
Cast: Diana Wynyard, Colin Clive, Mrs. Patrick Campbell
BW-88 mins, CC

Film debut of Jane Wyatt.


11:15 PM -- Mad Love (1935)
A mad doctor grafts the hands of a murderer on to a concert pianist's wrists.
Dir: Karl Freund
Cast: Peter Lorre, Frances Drake, Colin Clive
BW-68 mins, CC

Peter Lorre's first American film.


12:30 AM -- Christopher Strong (1933)
An aviatrix's affair with a married man could cost her her career.
Dir: Dorothy Arzner
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Colin Clive, Billie Burke
BW-78 mins, CC

When this movie was made, Colin Clive was 33; Billie Burke, who played his wife, was 49; and Helen Chandler, who played their daughter, was 27.


2:00 AM -- Dudes (1987)
A couple of punks from the big city go on a cross country road trip out west and take revenge against a group of rednecks.
Dir: Penelope Spheeris
Cast: Jon Cryer, Daniel Roebuck, Flea
C-90 mins, CC

In interviews with Penelope Spheeris and the rest of the cast and crew, it has been stated that the "cult" status of the movie and the lack of proper distribution and release over the years may stem from the fact that the movie cannot be "pigeon holed" into a single genre.


3:45 AM -- Border Radio (1987)
Two musicians try to find their bandleader, who's disappeared after stealing their fee from a crooked club owner.
Dir: Allison Anders
Cast: Chris D, Chris Shearer, John Doe
BW-83 mins, CC

This movie was originally financed by Vic Tayback, who played Mel the cook on the TV show Alice (1976).


5:15 AM -- The Golden Years (1960)
In this instructional short film, bowling is made respectable and appealing to middle-class Americans through modernization and design.
BW-15 mins,


5:15 AM -- Ask Me, Don't Tell Me (1961)
In this short film, San Francisco gang members turn their lives around working on community service projects.
Dir: David Myers
Cast: Stanley Mosk,
BW-22 mins,

[oasis]

1. I enjoyed Kind Hearts and Coronets w/ Alec Guinness years ago.

Recommended viewing.